UK UK - Kevin Hicks, 16, Croydon, 2 Mar 1986

[THX]

Another article which may be of interest. It's from the Croydon Advertiser dated 28th February 1986, just a couple of days before Kevin disappeared.

At the 7-11 on Lower Addiscombe Road (which I believe was the one Kevin was supposed to be going to on the night he disappeared) there was a violent incident when two men stole alcohol from the shop. The staff chased them and the men pulled a knife on them. Indicative again of the level of violence that was taking place in the local area at the time.

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[approveds]

I can understand the bike. I lived so near as a child. It was not unusual to take a bike and there were several routes Kevin could take to the shop. It was just far enough to use a bike to be quick or if you wanted to get elsewhere. Route 1 is straight down the road to the shop. That is fast. Kevin could also go down his own road into the park and then along the path and double back into Lower Addiscombe Road for a longer journey or cross the road and go through a side road and double back the other way to the shop. If you fancied a bike ride you might take the longer routes. What strikes me is if you intended going further than the 7/11 you might take a bike. Kevin ended up on the Shirley Road walking down it . Any side road by the 7/11 would take you to Bingham Road. A jaunt further towards Shirley would need a bike or be a fairly long walk.

What strikes me is Kevin ends up on the Shirley Road without the bike. This is odd as if you had a bike, you would use it. Unless the bike lost a chain etc. There is no mention of that.

Now I think about it, Kevin may have been taken to wherever left him needing to walk down the Shirley Road, but his disappearance would still occur either on the Shirley Road, the Lower Addiscombe Road and or in the lane by Ashburton Park that led to his house if he went that way (Most likely from the Shirley Road and it has no cars.) Or Blackhorse Lane on the way back to his house. Beyond Kevin's road this leads to the railway bridge and Woodside School on the left.

So why would Kevin abandon his bike and walk?

If Kevin went back for his bike he ended up back on the Lower Addiscombe Road walking back to the 7/11. This is not far and there is a crossing just where his road begins so it is likely he would use that if he went to get the bike.

In reality the window for Kevin to disappear is small if the Shirley Road sighting is true. However he went his house is not that far.

What makes sense to me is Kevin visits somewhere involving a walk up and returning down Shirley Road. He probably intended that.

Eggs for an exam could easily have been bought on the way to school in the morning as the 7/11 is near a bus stop. (Open from 7.am.)

Returning from wherever down Shirley Road shows an intention to return home but possibly to a bit of trouble at home given going for the eggs required a short time.

As far as the sighting goes Kevin is not in distress on the Shirley Road.

I keep coming back to Lower Addiscombe Road. It is a wierd road. It can be busy or deserted for no apparent reason.

He left his bike at home. Bingham Park was a gay cruising park.

 

[approveds]

Gay cruising does not equal paedophilia, I feel I ought to say, and paedophilia is what this case concerns.

This case involves a disappearance, and the reason for going out after dark which the police say was not to buy eggs. They also say he may have been killed unintentionally.

 

[approveds]

Just adding some stuff to this thread and provide some updates. Firstly a few posts have suggested Kevin's bike was found at the shop. His sister alexandra has categorically confirmed that Kevin did not take his bike with him. It was left at home. Secondly, Alexandra said that the speakers Kevin had were bought with his own money, so she doesn't believe they were used for grooming Kevin. Thirdly, Mark Williams Thomas did a very in depth investigation into the Lee Boxell case and it's on his podcast "The Detectives" - it gives a useful insight into the area at the time. The police have ruled out a link between Lee and Kevin's cases. "The Shed" gang at the church in Sutton where Lee went was interested in young girls. It's thought Lee was killed when he witnessed something to keep him quiet. It's not believed that Lee was groomed or the victim of paedophilia himself. In the podcast, a local man came forward to discuss another paedophile he'd encountered in Sutton, who worked at a bike shop and workshop in the town. He said this man abused him from the age of 14-16, was into violent sex, had links to people in Brighton and others in the area and had discussed snuff films. The victim recalled one incident that left him in fear of his life. The abuse stopped when the boy turned 16 - he was told that he was too old and the abuser didn't like men with dark hair (so that probably rules out Kevin).

The sad thing is that Croydon and the surrounding area seems to have been a real hotspot for paedophile groups in the 80s so there's no shortage of possibilities. Apart from the shed gang in Sutton that's suspected of Lee's murder, Brian Field committed at least one murder in the are and we know Sidney Cooke was operating in the area with his gang. In recent years at least 4 other paedophiles have been convicted for crimes around the Croydon area in the 80s, ranging from teachers to a football coach to a janitor turned businessman. One of them, Nigel Clayton, seems to have been pretty horrific and very prolific. I don't know if anyone reading this grew up in the area at the time, but one of my friends who grew up in Thornton Heath also recalled gangs of men bothering kids in the local park and the park keeper having to ask them to leave.

For what it's worth with Kevin I think there are a few possibilities apart from the paedophilia angle:

1) he was involved in some form of crime that got him into trouble. Possible that the speakers were stolen or that he owed money for them and that got him into trouble. The drugs trade was also not unknown in Croydon at the time. He may also possibly have been involved in sex work. Many young lads drifted into it in the London area back then, both straight and gay, and the main train stations were notorious for it. Sex work brings its own dangers.

2) gay sex cruising. It's possible that Kevin headed out for casual sex in the park or somewhere else nearby. We don't know if Kevin was gay, but being gay back then really required having a secret life. Cruising areas like that are notoriously dangerous, with more than one person (even in recent years) having been killed by criminals or gangs looking to gay bash someone. It's important to note that his sister Alexandra does not believe Kevin was gay. It's interesting to note though that Kevin had apparently spent all day in the park. There seems to have been little said about what he was doing.

3) picked up off the street. People like Brian Field had a record of doing this. However, I think Kevin's age and height counted against that. It would have made it more of a struggle and again, I don't think that his age and height would have made him attractive to a lot of paedophiles.

4) it's possible that Kevin is still alive. It's far from unknown for people to disappear like that and show up decades later. It would make particular sense if Kevin was gay as many gay teenagers back then really did have to runaway. Again, we don't know if Kevin was gay.

Yes I think he was gay, and went to Bingham Park that night, near to the shop he said he was going to.
Another boy who knew Kevin said that men used to hang about in Bingham Park talking to boys, and one of those men worked at the local Co-Op, the same one that Kevin worked at on Saturdays.

 

[approveds]

As a local resident, maybe you can shed some further light. A friend of mine who's also from Croydon and lived there during the 80s told me that in a number of the local parks, groups of men used to congregate and bother local kids. He talked about how the park keeper in his local park had to ask them to leave. It seems that after dark the parks were also used by people looking for sex. The police were aware of that and it's why they searched the parks. As for the story about the bike - Kevin's sister has categorically confirmed that he did not take his bike with him.

I think he went to Bingham Park, near to the shop he said he was going to, didn't take his keys, or bike as they could have got lost.

 

[GreyPhantom]

Do most people believe the main theory (started by Tony Stockwell) that Kevin was a victim of a older man and younger male known to him and the community? And that they are responsible for Reece Collins the year before. Using the "help us find a dog" rude to lure them in vulnerability.

 

[THX]

Do most people believe the main theory (started by Tony Stockwell) that Kevin was a victim of a older man and younger male known to him and the community? And that they are responsible for Reece Collins the year before. Using the "help us find a dog" rude to lure them in vulnerability.

I wouldn't believe a word that Tony Stockwell said. If the older and younger men had been known to the community, I'm sure Kevin's sister would have said something about it.

 

[THX]

Yes I think he was gay, and went to Bingham Park that night, near to the shop he said he was going to.
Another boy who knew Kevin said that men used to hang about in Bingham Park talking to boys, and one of those men worked at the local Co-Op, the same one that Kevin worked at on Saturdays.

I take the story about the man at the co-op with a very large dose of salt. Absolutely nobody else has corroborated it, including to my knowledge Kevin's sister. I can however well believe that there were dodgy men in the parks. I just don't think there is any supporting evidence for one of them being one of Kevin's co-workers

 

[GreyPhantom]

I wouldn't believe a word that Tony Stockwell said. If the older and younger men had been known to the community, I'm sure Kevin's sister would have said something about it.

She's the one that received the reading from Tony. Doesn't mean she knows everyone in the neighborhood. Why are you so quick to discount for a case that is ice cold for decades?

 

[BrutishGoose32]

Yes I think he was gay, and went to Bingham Park that night, near to the shop he said he was going to.
Another boy who knew Kevin said that men used to hang about in Bingham Park talking to boys, and one of those men worked at the local Co-Op, the same one that Kevin worked at on Saturdays.

Why do you think Kevin must have been gay? Alex (Kevin's sister) has even said that Kevin had a girlfriend when he went missing.
Who was this other boy, and where/when did he say this?

 

[THX]

She's the one that received the reading from Tony. Doesn't mean she knows everyone in the neighborhood. Why are you so quick to discount for a case that is ice cold for decades?

 

[THX]

You've been hanging around this thread for a long time trying to push that man. I think some of your previous comments were deleted. Not interested mate.

 

[THX]

Why do you think Kevin must have been gay? Alex (Kevin's sister) has even said that Kevin had a girlfriend when he went missing.
Who was this other boy, and where/when did he say this?

The police said they believed that Kevin was being groomed. That could mean in the way that county lines gangs groom kids to get involved in crime, but it's most usually used to mean something sexual. And who does the vast majority of grooming? Men. So if a man was sexually grooming Kevin, what might that mean? Possible he wasn't gay, and didn't know what he was getting into, but also possible that he was. Gay teenagers were incredibly vulnerable back then because the law (and society) was so discriminatory. Everything was pushed into the shadows.
There's no firm evidence either way, but one thing I will add is that I am gay, was a teenager in that era, and also had a girlfriend, becaus society was so homophobic in that era that it was almost like a form of protection. Oddly enough, my girlfriend at the time turned out to be a lesbian, so maybe we were subconsciously drawn together because of that. Whether Kevin was in a situation like that is unknown.
The other thing is that the local parks near Kevin were very well known cruising grounds for gay sex. The police said that Kevin left the house that night to meet someone and that the stuff about buying eggs at the shop was a lie. Who would he be meeting that he wanted to keep hidden from his family and friends? So that's another thing to consider.
Thirdly, it was widely reported that Kevin liked to go for walks in Shirley Hills. The police searched that area. It's a popular spot for walks with locals, but after dark is a very well known sex cruising area. At least one gay man was murdered there in 1992.
Fourth, Kevin's mother said in a newspaper article that Kevin had been bullied at school. What was he being bullied for? Possible that he was being bullied for being gay, but we don't know.
Fifth, the IICSA inquiry mentioned how when kids go missing, it's overwhelmingly about sex. If that indeed was the case with Kevin, it was much more likely that he's be hiding some form of sexual connection with a male than a female because of the era.
Regarding this story about a supposed man he worked with at the Co-op being one of these dodgy men, I don't think there has ever been any evidence of that. The only person I have ever heard repeat it is the account called Approveds.

For what it's worth I think there are three main possibilities with Kevin:

1) He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he was attacked. We know there were many violent gangs and muggers in that area at the time and teenage lads like Kevin had been attacked.

2) He was involved in a Sexual situation that he wanted to keep hidden. Wanting to keep it hidden back then would point much more towards it being a man than a woman. If he was cruising for sex in local parks, we know that several men were attacked one night a few months after Kevin's disappearance by a gang who beat them with metal pipes, and that a man was murdered in Shirley Hills in 1992.

3) Drugs. We know about the violence linked to drugs and there was some serious drug trafficking and dealing going on in the streets near Kevin during that time.

The whole problem with this case is that it has had such little attention over the years, and the information in the public domain is very limited. The police are now very reluctant to discuss what was going on in someone's private life because of what happened with Claudia Lawrence. Hopefully with the 40th anniversary in 2026 they'll release more about Kevin's case.